NEW WASHINGTON — A young Danbury team had a tough challenge ahead of it: Facing the top seed in the Willard district.
And the Lakers, which had just one senior on the roster and she didn’t play, were the perfect challenger for a Buckeye Central team that hasn’t seen the floor much in the last week.
Buckeye Central coach Abram Kaple said his talented Buckettes were not going to take Danbury for granted.
“It’s a new season, right? Danbury was 1-0 and we were 0-0,” Kaple said. “We understand that the sense of urgency has to increase, both in practice and in games, because you never know. You’ve seen crazier things happen, either in college or even at the high school level.”
He had nothing to worry about.
The Buckettes used strong full-court pressure in the first half and got a great deal of offense off their defense in battering the Lakers, 74-18, in the final of the Division IV sectional Saturday night.
The Buckettes (21-2) won their sixth straight sectional championship and will face South Central in the district semifinal on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Willard High School. South Central bested Mansfield Christian, 51-41, to reach the district. Danbury fell to 7-12.
Kyleigh Brown scored eight points in the first period and Claudia Pifher added nine as the Buckettes forced 11 Danbury turnovers in the first quarter, then added 11 more turnovers in the second period as the Buckettes held a 41-10 lead at the break.
“You have to be prepared to play and I thought we did a good job, in the couple of days we were allowed to practice, in light of the weather, I thought we had good focus right from the start,” Kaple said. “That showed on the scoreboard.
“We had good energy. We felt we could pressure their guards a little bit if we sped them up. So, we did a really good job in the backcourt.”
The entire second half a running clock was used, but the Buckettes still forced 13 Danbury turnovers, despite calling off the full-court pressure.
Pifher finished with 26 points on the night, knocking down three 3-point baskets and Emily Siesel scored 13. Brown added 12.
“Kyleigh Brown got us off to a good start in the first quarter so that was big for her on the defensive side and we were able to convert,” Kaple said. “When you get those turnovers, you have to turn them into points.”
The Buckettes finished the night hitting 30 of 54 shots for 56 percent, but many of their 30 baskets came off the defense. BC made more field goals than the number of shots Danbury took in the game, 27.
“We missed some shots, we didn’t force anything, and I thought we took good shots, they just didn’t go in,” Kaple said. “We practiced twice since we played last Saturday. I’ll give credit to that. Not in the gym which kinda got us out of our rhythm. So, we’ll shoot early and often next week, we’ll correct it. Thankfully, we didn’t need to make every shot tonight.”
As for the Buckettes’ next opponent, Kaple said that he has seen the Trojans.
“We’ve seen South Central a little bit,” Kaple said. “We’ll dive into it more (today). We’ll treat them just like everyone else. This next game is the most important game of the year and we’ll treat it, and we’ll go from there.”
Box score
Danbury 7 3 6 2 — 18
Buckeye Central 22 19 11 22 — 74
Danbury (7-12): Shots 8-27; 3-pt. shots 1 (Kamil Stephens); Free throws 1-3; Rebounds 16; Turnovers 35. Scoring: Kamil Stephens 1 0 3, Kelly Uhinck 4 0 8 Maria Maringer 1 0 2, Natalie Rose 1 1 3, Lia Brown 1 0 2.
Buckeye Central (21-2): Shots 30-54; 3-pt. shots 8 (Claudia Pifher 3, Emily Siesel 2, Kate Siesel 2, Kendra Ackerman); Free throws 6-6; Rebounds 20; Turnovers 6. Scoring: Kendra Ackerman 2 0 5, Claudia Pifher 10 3 26, Julia Evak 2 2 6, Emily Siesel 5 1 13, Taylor Ratliff 3 0 6, Kate Siesel 2 0 6, Kyleigh Brown 6 0 12.